Current-motor.



PATENTED DEC. 27, 1904.

W. NIEMEYER.

CURRENT MOTOR.

APFLIUATION FILED MAY 14. 1904.

Z SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Nl NNN IlllL No. 778,702. PATENTED DEC. 27, 1904.

y W. NIEMEYER.

CURRENT MOTOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 14. 1964.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 24 2% A TTOR/VEY UNITED STATES Patented December 27,1904.

PATENT OEEicE.

CURRENT-MOTOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 778,702, dated December27, 1904.

Application filed May 14, 1904. Serial No. 207,933.

To r/,ZZ 7//71/0712/ it Wbay concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM NIEMEYER, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of St. Joseph, in thc county of Buchanan and State ofMissouri, have invented a new and Improved Current-Motonof which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to a motor for use upon rivers and other placeswhere thereis a current of water. f

The objects of the invention are to provide a device of the characterdescribed which can be set up without the construction of costly masonryworks and in which the operating device may be moved from the waterwithout disconnecting any of the parts or lifting' any of the heavyparts of the device out of the water.

Further objects of the invention will appear in the course of thesubjoined description.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which Similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding' parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of a preferred formof my invention on the line 1 1 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a sectional view ofthe same on the line 2 2 ofHFig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sectional view on theline 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. et is a sectional view on the line et L1 ofFig. 2. Fig. is a fragmentary plan view, and Fig. 6 is a sectional viewon the line 6 6 of Fig. 1.

In the drawings, 11 represents a barge or other floating object providedwith bearings 12 and 19. for the purpose of supporting shafts, as willappeal'. In the bottom of the barge are located cleats or standards 13and 14, the uses of which will be described below. At the stern of thebarge is a slot 15 for the passage of a shaft 16, which is the mainshaft of the machine and which carries upon its outer end a water-wheel17, which may be of any known or desired construction. The shaft carriesupon its inner end a gear or pinion 18, which for convenience is shownas a bevelgear, which meshes with a larger bevel-gear 19, looselymounted upon ashaft 20, supported l in the bearings 12. The gear 19 inturn meshes with another gear 21, mounted on a shaft 22, which issupported in the bearings 12 and carries a pulley 23 for transmittingpower to a belt 24. From this construction it will be seen that when thebarge 11 is anchored in the river and the current takes lthe directionindicated by the long arrow in Fig. 1 the wheel 17l will be rotated andthrough the shafts and 1 gearing mentioned will cause rotation of thepulley 23 and movement of the belt 24. It will be obvious that any othermeans could be employed for transmitting power from this device and thatthe one shown is merely illustrative of one embodiment of the invention.

Through the center of the shaft 20 is a passage 25, through which passesthe end of the shaft 16. This shaft is provided with collars 26 orequivalent devices for preventing it from moving longitudinally withrespect to the shaft 20, but at the same time permitting it to rotatewithout disturbing the shaft 20. The opposite end of the shaft 16 ismounted in a movable bearing 27, which is pivoted to a block 2S, adaptedto reciprocate on ways 29, which in the present instance are inclinedslightly from the vertical. The means for reciprocating this block 28and bearing 27 comprises a crank 30, gears 31 32, shaft 33, additionalintermeshing gears 34, 35, and 36, and the right and left handedscrew-threaded rods 37. The screwthreaded rods 37 pass throughscrew-threaded openings in the block 9.8, as indicated in Figs. 3 and 6,and it will be obvious that rotation of the crank 30 will cause thereciprocation of the bearing 27. As the shaft 16 is mounted in thebearing, but free to slide -longitudinally with respect thereto, it willbe obvious that such operation of the bearing will cause the shaft toswing' upon its pivot-namely, the shaft 20 as indicated in dotted linesin Fig. 1. Thisis a Very important part of my invention. In the devicesheretofore constructed for this purpose it has been necessary to liftthe whole barge out of the water in order to remove the wheel from theinfluence of the current, and in that class in which the wheel wasmounted upon masonry it was necessary to construct a very costlyfoundation for the device. Neither one of these objections can be urgedagainst my invention.

Although I have illustrated a certain definite construction which is onepractical way of carrying' out my invention, it will be obn Vious thatit may be embodied in many other forms without departing' from thespirit of the invention as represented in the appended claims. The meansfor operating' the rods 37, for instance, could obviously be changed andmodified in many ways and, in fact, could be replaced by any other meanswhich would accomplish the desired result.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patents l. A current-motor comprising` a waterwheel, apivoted shaft with which said wheel is mounted, a gear on said shaft, ashaft arranged at right angles to said first-named shaft, a gear on saidsecond shaft meshing with said first-named gear, a third shaft, a gearthereon meshing with said second gear, and power-transmission meansconnected with said last-named shaft.

2. A current-motor comprising a waterwheel, a pivoted shaft on whichsaid wheel is mounted, a second shaft at right angles to saidfirst-named shaft, said second shaft having' a passage therethrough forsaid first-named shaft and constituting a pivot therefor, and means fortransmitting power from said firstmentioned shaft.

3. A current-motor comprising a waterwheel, a pivoted shaft on whichsaid wheel is mounted, a second shaft at right ang'les to saidfirst-named shaft, a third shaft, a gear on each of said shafts, saidgears meshing with each other so as to transmit power from saidfirstmentioned shaft to said third-mentioned shaft, a passage throughsaid second-mentioned shaft for said first-mentioned shaft, and areciproeatingl bearing for said first-mentioned shaft.

4. A current-motor comprising a waterwheel, a pivoted shaft on whichsaid wheel is mounted, a second shaft having a passage therethrough forsaid first-mentioned shaft and constituting a pivot therefor, means fortransmitting power from said first-mentioned shaft, and a reciprocatingbearing for said first-mentioned shaft whereby the latter may be causedto swing about the second-mentioned shaft.

5. A current-motor comprising in combination, a water-wheel, a shaft onwhich said wheel is mounted, a gear-wheel carried by said shaft, asecond gear-wheel with which said first gear-wheel meshes, a thirdgear-wheel with which said second gear-wheel meshes, a shaft carryingthe same, means for transmitting rotation from said last shaft, arotatable bearing for said first shaft at substantially the axis of saidsecond gear-wheel, and means for raising and lowering said first shaftabout the axis of said bearing.

6. A current-motor comprising in combination, a water-wheel, a shaftrotating' therewith and supporting the same, a gear-wheel carried bysaid shaft, a second gear-wheel meshing' therewith, a bearing for saidshaft having an axis of rotation substantially coincident with the axisof rotation of said second. gear-wheel, a third gear-wheel meshing withsaid second gear-wheel, a shaft carrying the same, a belt-pulley on saidshaft, and means for raising and lowering the extremity of said firstshaft remote from the said bearing.

7. ln combination, a fioating barge having a recess in the gunwalethereof opening upwardly, a shaft normally occupying said re' cess, awheel carried by said shaft, means for raising' said shaft and wheel,and means for transmitting power from said shaft.

8. The combination of a fioating barge having' a recess opening upwardlyin the stern thereof, a shaft normally lying in said opening, awater-wheel on said shaft, means for transmitting power from said shaftmounted on said barge, and means for raising' said shaft bodily upon apivot.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM NIEMEYER. iitnesses:

DAN MARSEE, HENRY Vo'rH.

